Chili (American & Vegan)
Surprise! I’ve decided that, while Italian food is still the best (duh), there are some foods from around the world which are simply too great not to veganize. So once a month (on the second Wednesday of the month, to be precise) I’ll choose one food from somewhere outside of Italy and post the recipe! If you have any suggestions for future foods, go ahead and leave your ideas in the comments section below – and I’ll make sure to choose one for next time!
Anyway, enough about that – let’s talk about chili. Although I’ve gone to American schools my whole life, and the majority of my friends have always been American, I somehow had never tried chili until this past summer, in Birmingham, Alabama. This place made vegan chili, and it was so incredibly tasty that I fell in love. This year, it’s probably been my single most eaten food, just because of how easy it is to cook and how absolutely scrumptious it is. This recipe has nothing to do with what I ate, I really just improvised this with beans and some stuff I had – but I have to admit that it definitely works. And to make things even better, it’s incredibly nutritious and healthy. On their menu, the restaurant in Birmingham described their chili as “heartwarming”. I think that’s the best word to describe this chili as well – heartwarming. Enjoy.
Ingredients (serves 1)
- 400g (can) red kidney beans
- 250g passata
- 1 large red onion
- 1 hot chili pepper
- 50g cashew nuts
- 5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
- salt
- pepper
- paprika
- olive oil
Preparation (25 minutes)
Slice the onion and pepper and throw into a saucer with plenty of olive oil. Break the cashews into slightly smaller pieces and add them right away, mix everything together for a couple of minutes. Add some pepper, salt, and paprika, then keep cooking until the onions start turning golden brown. Add the beans with all of the water from the can and the passata, and stir everything well. Bring to a boil and then leave to simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the nutritional yeast and desiccated coconut, stir for about two minutes, then serve!